Gopi realises dream through protégé

It took a while but finally, on Saturday, India’s medal drought in the badminton event at the Olympics had ended, courtesy Saina Nehwal’s historic bronze in London. And nobody was happier than national coach Pullela Gopichand, who was in Saina’s corner all through the tournament, and indeed, for most of her career.

“The one thing that has been preying on my mind for years was the fact that our country does not have a single badminton medal at the Olympics. As a player, I had tried my best but had to end my career without one,” Gopi said, speaking to this newspaper on Saturday. “Saina winning the medal, in a way, fulfilled my dream, too. This is my way of winning a medal for my country,” a proud Gopi said.

“Not only that, the dream of an entire nation has been realised on this day,” he added.

Gopi reckons this

I’ve never seen anyone as dedicated as Saina... she hasn’t taken a holiday for almost 7 years!

achievement will only go on to raise the profile of the sport in the country. “While badminton is steadily gaining popularity, we still have our fair share of detractors who point fingers at us and tell us we are wasting our time,” Gopi said. “With this achievement, we can show them how dreams can be achieved and also used to inspire. I’m sure Saina’s medal will spur shuttlers all across the country to reach for greater heights. Everyone now knows an Olympic medal can be won and will make it their dream.”

Things might have looked a tad bleak after the way Saina lost to Yihan Wang in the semifinal on Friday, but Gopi never lost heart. “Saina didn’t want to analyse the game but I forced her to sit with me and talked her through it. I talked to her about her errors.

“She avoided making those mistakes today and though her opponent conceded the match, she was on her way to making a comeback and had pushed the Chinese girl hard till the end. I’m sure she would have won had the match not been conceded,” Gopi added.

After years of working hard towards this goal, one might think Saina has earned herself a well-deserved break. But Gopi doubts whether she will take one. “Whether or not to take a break is totally upto her. She has earned it. I’ve never seen anyone as dedicated as Saina about her discipline. But if I know Saina, she wouldn’t know what to do with so much time, even though she hasn’t taken a holiday for almost seven years! So I think it’ll be business as usual for us once we return,” Gopi said with a chuckle.